Page 84 of Unstoppable Love

“I’ve learned a thing or two, and Earl learned early on in our marriage that the most important thing was that if he was making decisions that had me as the priority, then all was well. It was when he started thinking of himself first, things got sticky. Learn from me, son, and you two take care.”

“I will, Marty.” I tapped my credit card to the pay machine and then gave her a quick hug. “Have a good week, ma’am.”

“Always do.” She hummed and helped Ava load the groceries into the cart.

We headed out, and I lowered the tailgate to my truck. “I’ve got them,” I told Ava when she reached for the groceries. “Think Marty was trying to warn me to stay away from you or just warning me how to treat a woman in general?”

“Not sure.” Ava shrugged. “But if it means you’re always putting me first, not sure I care much.”

She rested her shoulder against the back of my truck while I finished loading the bags, and I chuckled. “Sunshine, when it comes to you, you always come first.”

I left her at my truck while I returned the cart, jaw slack and a blush rising on her cheek.

Chapter 24

Ava

It was ridiculously stupid to be so nervous on the short drive out to my parents’ place. Mom and Dad loved Cameron. They already knew we were giving this a shot, and last week when I told them, I also filled Mom in on the fact that Cameron was part of the reason why I’d fled to Florida. I told her almost everything, mostly starting with that kiss in the hallway and the fact I’d had a crush on him for so long that being with him now didn’t feel quite real yet.

To which my mom, in all her wisdom, giggled. “If you think you were fooling anyone with that crush you had on him, you’re dead wrong, sweetheart. I’ve known that since you were in middle school.”

I’d rolled my eyes, told her to be nice, and that was it.

Up until she ambushed us in the middle of the grocery market thanks to Mr. Haven’s nosiness—something I’d texted Lydia about this afternoon after Cameron and I ate breakfast and spent some time getting to know each other with his dick lodged tight and deep inside of me—I would have thought taking Cameron home with me would have been the most natural thing.

It was different now. He wasn’t only Isaiah’s best friend, he was mine. Didn’t every girl get nervous introducing her boyfriend to her parents? Even if said boyfriend had practically grown up in that house?

“You bounce that leg any more, and I’m going to have to pull over and play with you until all you’re thinking about is how I feel inside of you.”

I froze said bouncy leg and whipped my head toward Cameron. “What?”

He chuckled and reached his hand out to settle on my thigh. “You’re nervous, and that’s ridiculous. Your parents already love me.”

“Yeah, as Isaiah’s best friend, but this is different.”

“How? Hell, I grew up in that house when I wasn’t at my own, and it’s not like they could tell me embarrassing stories about you I don’t already know.”

Okay, so he had a point. “I don’t know. It’s weird. After all this time…”

I drifted off because it was weird, but it was also right.

“What’s so weird about this?”

Oh, come on. He had to know. “It’s nothing,” I muttered instead, because the more I thought about it, the more my stomach tightened into a tiny, aching ball.

Cam slammed on his brakes, yanked us off to the shoulder of the road, and slapped his hand to turn on the emergency flashers.

“What are you doing?” I shrieked. “Cameron!”

“What’s bugging you, Sunshine?”

“The fact we’re sitting on the side of the road is what’s bugging me!”

“Bullshit.” He leaned in closer, one arm on the steering wheel, the other snaking up to the back of my neck. I loved when he grabbed me there. It was so sexy. Like he was claiming me in some way, and my body shivered as his fingers pressed in. “Something’s bugging you. And it started when we went into town this morning. I get not wanting people to talk, but you already knew that was going to happen. And I don’t want you a nervous jitterbug every time we leave your house.”

“You’re you,” I blurted, and his eyes narrowed. “And I’m just… I’m me… and people are going to think it’s weird and doesn’t make sense, and it doesn’t!”

God, I was being dumb. So stupid. But insecurities were insecurities, and there was no telling when they’d rear their ugly heads.

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